Men's Hockey Triumphs over Springfield

By Lynn Albers
Sports Editor

Wednesday's night hockey game was one of the most exciting games in recent
memory. Rob Silva '93 had a hat trick, MIT scored five goals in the third
period, and Steve Schleuter '96 scored his first goal of the season on a
bankshot. All this and more happened in Wednesday night's 8-6 victory over
Springfield College.

Lloyd Johnston G, the goon of the team according to avid fans, proved his
right to the title by earning two penalties. The first penalty was for
elbowing, and the second occurred when he cross-checked a player, breaking
his stick over the guy's back in the process. The referees only called him
for interference.

Johnston also threw several punches throughout the game. In one instance,
he took a swing at a guy in the Springfield end, missed the guy, was
carried around by his momentum, saw the puck, put his stick on it and sent
it into the goal between the goalie's legs for MIT's fourth goal of the
game.

The second period started off poorly for the Engineers with the two
penalties coming in the first two minutes. Johnston's was the first and the
second was Schleuter's. Much controversy took place over Schleuter's
penaltybecause while Johnston was in the penalty box, Springfield scored to
move ahead 2-1, but Schleuter's penalty was delayed so the referees were
confused as to which penalty to drop. After much arguing, Johnston came out
of the box and Schleuter went in.

The penalties were painful for MIT because Springfield was able to score
during both of them. Within 1 minute, 49 seconds, Springfield had taken the
lead to 4-1. The Engineers played like they had done pot between periods.
Fortunately they found a groove a few minutes later, but the damage was
done.

MIT picked up the pace, putting the pressure on Springfield goalie Chris
Sovie '95. The Engineers fired numerous shots on goal, but they were all
stopped. Spirits in the stands were getting low as fans began to wonder if
MIT could recover.

MIT finally had a break when a penalty was called on Springfield for
covering the puck in the crease. While the Springfield coach was busy
ventilating at the refs, Silva began his descent on Sovie. Silva fired
once, it was blocked but not covered. Silva fired the rebound but couldn't
find a gap. Sovie had reigned and he let Silva know it by yelling in his
face: "Yeah!"

After that, MIT went out in full force and Springfield retaliated with
muscle. Springfield's tactic of all muscle and no brain backfired. The
Chiefs quickly put two men in the box. During the five on three advantage,
Alain Curodeau G passed to Nick Pearce G, who sent the puck through Silva's
legs to Jonathan Shingles '96. That confused Sovie and allowed Shingles to
tap the puck into the goal. Less than a minute later, Johnston passed to
Shingles who could have easily scored but instead drew the goalie and
passed the puck in front of the net to Silva for another quick goal.

MIT played solidly for the next few minutes especially the third line of
Bryan Sanderson '96, Joseph Wall G, and Michael Charney G, who kept the
puck in the Springfield end for their entire shift. The Engineers, however,
could not prevent the Chiefs from scoring two more goals.

Down 6-3 at the start of the third period, MIT kept calm and levelheaded
and used their skill and teamwork to tire the chiefs. After seven minutes
of pressure on Sovie, Johnston scored and started the momentum for MIT.
Shingles, Silva, and Rob Souza '95 then connected to bring the score to
6-5.

Goalie John Simmons '95 contributed by making several big saves to keep the
Engineers within reach of a win. Curodeau, Souza, and Silva connected to
tie the game and give Silva his hat trick.

The first of two amazing plays that evening came when Dan Lee G chased the
puck into the Springfield end where Sovie, forced to come out of the net,
was trapping it against the side boards. As Sovie tried to clear the puck,
Lee blocked it with his body, wrestled with the goalie for the puck,
controlled it, skated around the net, and scored giving MIT the lead. "Dan
made the best play of the evening," said teammate Erik Norton '93.

The second amazing play of the evening was the icing on the cake for the
engineers. With less than a minute left, Springfield pulled its goalie.
Schleuter in an attempt to clear the puck, banked it off the boards at the
red line. The puck went through some defenders and straight toward the
goal. Schleuter, who was on his way to the bench, looked back in time to
see the puck roll into the net for his first goal of the season and the
final goal of the evening.

Schleuter stated that ironically his only goal during one of his high
school seasons was scored on an empty net as well.

The evening was not without injury. Jason Biederman '94, who had played a
good game the entire night, left momentarily with a hurt knee. Biederman
said, "Some guy mistook my leg for the ice and stepped on me." He was up
and skating a minute later.